Diary of Linda and my
experience regarding the Cedar Fire of October 2003

10/26/03 Woke up to the horrible smell of smoke and the south east sky was pitch
black.Thought to my self that that
fire is getting close.Made Linda
and I French Toast for breakfast.The
smoke was getting worse, so I tuned in the news on TV.Found out that the fire was only 2 miles away from us.I and all the neighbors started watching the sky to the south almost
constantly.The sun was jumping in
and out of the brown black smoe creating a scenic shot for the camera.I took several shots, but when I began to see flames in the sky I decided
it was time to start packing our important papers and some of our valuables.We got both vehicles packed and waited nervously for worse
conditions.We decided, if we could
actually see a house burning with the naked eye, than we would hit the road.About 3:00 p.m. the police came by with loud speaker’s announcing
mandatory evacuation for all residents.The
roads where only open to north so we decided to go to Linda’s parents Bill and
Millie Taylor's house in Vista. We
slept overnight in our 5th wheel which was stored there.

10/27/03 Bill made us all sour dough waffles for breakfast.Yummy.We called our home
phone and the answering machine picked up, so we think that our house is still
standing.So far
150 houses have burned in Scripps Ranch within 2 – 3 miles of our house.

10/28/03 Got word that the police are allowing Scripps Ranch residents back into
their homes.So we returned at 9:00
a.m. to very dark smoke filled sky's and lots of soot.We are thankful that our house has been spared from the 300 plus
structures that were burned within 2-3 miles of our house.I attempted to get a better look and photograph the Scripp's Lake fire
area's, but all burn areas were still blocked off.There were police and fire trucks all along Pomerado Road and
Semillon Blvd. monitoring the hot spots that remain to be possible sources of
major flare up. At 2:30 in the afternoon the sun is orange and the smoke
is so dense that it can be viewed with the naked eye. The huge two
magnetic sun spots now active, can be seen with the naked eye, quite a
novelty. Its so dark that all the automatic light sensors are turning on
street light, security lights, etc. My lungs and throat are definitely
being affected by the particulate matter in the air. Must get my dog
Meghan inside now as canines react to it the same as humans.

11/17/03 Well its
been about 3 weeks since the fire and all is well with Linda and I. We
survived the fires with no damage to our house our persons. This has been
my most popular web page to date and will probably exceed 250,000 hits if I
leave it on my site. I may have to close it down if my web host provider enforces
my bandwidth limit of 5GB per month as the cost would be
prohibitive. The number one question I get emailed is; Did Misty Cat
survive the fire? I am happy to report that indeed she did survive with
the only damage being some smoky smelling fur. Thank you all for the many
emails expressing your concern for our safety.

Southern sky, fire
day 1, about 8:00 a.m., in front of my house in Scripps Ranch, San
Diego, CA

About 1/2 hour
later. Notice all the neighbors cars are out and ready for a quick
get away.

I am beginning to get
more worried now Even my wife Linda thinks it is time to start
packing.

We are getting all
the jewelry and valuable papers together now.

The wind can't make
up its mind which direction to blow. I and the neighbors all cheer
each time the wind heads into a favorable bearing.

This scene convinced
many neighbors that it was time to vacate immediately. We decided
we would wait until we could actually see a house burning, but the San
Diego police came with loud speakers and told us that it was mandatory
to leave now. We were all ready except for Misty cat which jumped
into the garage rafters. We left her with lots of food and water
hoped for her safety.

We were allowed to
returned after the 2nd day. We were relieved and thankful that our
house was spared from the infernal blaze. This is the sun at 3:00 p.m. in
the afternoon on 10/28/2003. I used the smoke as a natural UV
filter. Notice the two black sun spot storms in the center, going
on right now.

Pomerado Road about 2
miles from our house is still active with hot spots and lined with fire
trucks and fire fighters.

The brush under the
Eucalyptus trees is completely burned out now. We should be good
for another 30 years now.

This is Semillon
Blvd. about 1 mile from our house. Many houses burned just up from
this road block. This is the actual lighting at 1:30 p.m.
The air quality is really unhealthy, notice the masks that people are
wearing.

A military helicopter
getting water from Lake Miramar near our house, to fight the fire.
This is the actual color of the sky right now.